


Daredevil Season 3 E10

by VeryMildSuperPowers



Series: Season 3 [11]
Category: Daredevil (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-03
Updated: 2016-10-03
Packaged: 2018-08-19 10:24:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,512
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8201944
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VeryMildSuperPowers/pseuds/VeryMildSuperPowers
Summary: Fun times in Tokyo





	

On the rooftop Daredevil cloaked as soon as he detected the threat. By then they were closing in on all sides, climbing up the walls, leaving no escape route open to him. They would be on him soon. He searched around for where their numbers were fewest, giving him the best chance at avoiding detection.

On the street Steve could see no way through the encroaching crowd. He prepared himself, fists raised, spinning around, trying to figure out who would attack him first. There was a warning call from above just before Bucky landed beside him. The two of them stood back to back.

Frank wondered how they were all going to get out of this in one piece, and how much fun he’d have trying to stay alive. With a roar he charged into the crowd, punching, elbowing and kneeing his way into the throng.

Black Panther had been alerted to the battle via Daredevil’s mask. He went back to the green door to alert Madame Gao. “It’s time.” he said, and she nodded solemnly, holding the door wide open to allow him entry. She closed it behind him. 

Daredevil flipped over them, kicking on the way down, sweeping their legs out from under them. Some would retreat, opening up new pathways for him. Despite their infinite numbers he continued to attack aggressively, not allowing any of them to best him. 

Bucky hit the command panel in his new arm, selecting the holographic shield. Glancing over his shoulder he saw the look on Steve’s face. He gave a shrug and a lop-sided grin. “Sorry I can’t hook you up, buddy.” He lunged at the approaching ninjas, bouncing them away with the shield, turning to kick, punch and swipe at all whom dared approach. Steve matched his footwork, fists and feet connecting with faces, keeping them at bay as best he could.

The Punisher was at his bloody best, but even he knew they couldn’t keep this up for much longer. It was time to get serious. He grabbed a fallen ninja from the ground and ripped off his mask, exposing his face to the milling crowd. He pulled the knife from his boot and held it at his throat. He growled “Is this what you want? You want him dead?”

“No, we do not. I do not want him dead. But he is one of us. He has already dedicated his life to our cause. And he is prepared to lose if. As we all are.” Nobu stepped through the parting crowd.

The Punisher glanced left and right, but everyone was staying back. Prepared to attack on Nobu’s command, but no threat for the moment. He knew his hostage served no purpose. Throwing him to the ground he stood on guard, knife at the ready.

“You’re Nobu?”

“Indeed I am. And you are one of Daredevil’s companions. Are you here for Elektra?”

“Is she here? Where is she?” He knew Matt was desperate to find her.

Nobu shook his head. “You have other more pressing matters to be concerned about.” Someone was approaching from behind, no doubt expecting that Nobu was keeping him distracted. He lunged to the ground and rolled under the blow aimed at his head, tackling his attacker. As the ninja crashed to the ground, the Punisher leaped to his feet. Nobu simply nodded and took one step back. The ninjas rushed him, crushing in from all sides, giving him no chance to move much less fight back.

 

The attacking ninjas did their best to separate Bucky and Steve, constantly attacking from the side, taking advantage of any flank left unguarded. While the front line picked away at them, those further back conferred to come up with a plan of attack. The moment arrived, and they all burst through the front line simultaneously, knocking their companions to the ground but gaining the advantage over Bucky and Steve. Overwhelmed and separated, they too were suddenly crushed from every side.

 

The cloaked suit gave Daredevil a tremendous advantage and he was able to hold them off and inflict many injuries upon them. He would pull them into headbutts, knee them in the solar plexus, throw them into each other, and as skilled as they were they struggled to contain the invisible force within their midst. Only their sheer numbers gave them an advantage. An overwhelming advantage. He went down.

 

Although Madame Gao’s journey to her home planet had been unsuccessful politically, while there she had obtained some new equipment. Hand-held focused disintegration wave emitters. The green door property was four streets away from the building with the hole, also believed to be housing the sarcophagus. Although the technology they were using was advanced, they progressed gradually over a few months to avoid detection. They stopped tunneling when almost through, awaiting the right moment.

Which had now come.

Black Panther held a scanner up to the wall. The display showed the layout of that level, rooms, hallways, and what appeared to be the sarcophagus itself in the very next room. There were two guards, but as Black Panther and Madame Gao watched they headed for the stairwell to join the others upstairs. Now, while their priorities lay elsewhere, was the right time. They broke down the wall and entered the sarcophagus room. As they stepped through they heard it grinding open. Madame Gao and Black Panther stood in front of it, waiting for the swirling mist to dissipate. 

Suddenly, the two guards returned. Black Panther leaped to attack, engaging both of them. He easily kept them at bay, every single move he made was that of an animal rather than a human. With slashing claws, inhuman strength and gravity-defying maneuvers they were unprepared for such an opponent and he was quickly able to subdue them both. He turned to see Madame Gao looking into the sarcophagus at the newly-awakened Elektra.

She was alive. Her eyes were open, but she did not say anything or attempt to move. No signs of consciousness, she just stared straight ahead. Black Panther carefully lifted her out and placed her on the ground. She wobbled, and was still uncommunicative, but able to stand.

Goa took Elektra’s arm, and held up two small, metallic devices. Handing the first to Black Panther she said, “This is an explosive.” She gave him the second device. “This is the detonator.” She saw the look of doubt on his face. “It is far more powerful than its size would suggest. We cannot leave the sarcophagus in their hands. It must be destroyed.”

He agreed. Madame Gao led the compliant Elektra into the tunnel. “I will get her to safety.” were Gao’s parting words.

He attached the device to the sarcophagus. Once safely down the tunnel and around the corner he checked that Gao and Elektra were at a safe distance. He couldn’t hear them, so they must be far enough away. He set it off. 

It detonated, but instead of an explosion there was a crackling sound, like electrical sparks. Black Panther went back to investigate. The sarcophagus was glowing with an eerie display, swirls and lights and larger globes, which became planets and stars in a gaseous nebula, expanding into galaxies, spinning and mixing and forming new images of cells and molecules and DNA, splitting apart, reproducing; a tardigrade; following one molecule, a water molecule as its surroundings changed from intracellular to a pipe to a river to an ocean to evaporate and form as a cloud to fall as snow and for it to be nothing but a glistening white, sparking and glittering, too beautiful to tear your eyes away from, mesmerizing and seductive. He stared at it, utterly transfixed, filled with a sensation he could not identify. Knowledge, information, happiness all merging into one. 

As Madame Gao led her down the passage, Elektra suddenly froze in place. Her legs and arms became rigid, and she flung her head back. She was levitating about six inches above the floor.

She could see shards of rainbows all around, some of the shards changing to fractured images of streets and rooms and cities and people from her memories, Hong Kong, Paris, New York. The images blurred and shook and fell out of focus, to return re-assembled as mixed-up jigsaw puzzles, confusing and disconcerting. There were strange black lines weaving through the images, in some places mixed up and tangled in knots. The lines vibrated harmoniously and re-structured into a grid layout, neat and ordered, the images realigned. She felt an immersive sense of calmness and serenity, every cell in her body bathed in warming glow. Her chaotic past no longer mattered, she could walk away from it and now follow the path to the happiness and feeling of belonging she had always craved. 

Through it all, she could still see Madame Gao, but in her true form. Their eyes locked, and for a few moments they shared a common mind. “You must be true to yourself, my dear.” Gao said, or rather, that was the message Elektra received.

She floated back to the floor and they continued through the passage.

 

Black Panther had no option but to leave it in place. It was pulsating, as if it had its own heartbeat. What had happened to it? He would have to find out. It was more urgent than ever that the Hand should fall. He heard and felt a mass of people above him moving towards the room, alerted by whatever had just occurred. He returned to the tunnel.

They weren’t waiting for him, they must have gone on ahead without him. As he progressed through the rooms he found no-one was here at all. The entire facility was now empty.

Gao had gone. And she had Elektra. What had the ‘explosive’ device really done to the sarcophagus?

He had been played. As he passed through a door he heard a beeping sound, speeding up. He saw the source and ran. The building exploded behind him as he barely escaped. Pieces of burning wood, small and large, flying through the air as he ran and leaped for safety. 

 

Nobu felt it. Something was happening. Something was different. It was related to … the sarcophagus. Had Electra awakened, what that what he could feel? “Come.” He barked at the nearest ninjas. Leaving the unconscious prisoners, they followed him downstairs. He reached the sarcophagus room. As he approached it the surfaced rippled, showing him snowflakes and ice crystals and diamonds. He tried to touch it, but it retracted away from his hand. He stepped back and it calmed down, the surface appearing perfectly smooth. Indentations formed, turning into scales, the striations on the scales increased and they became feathers. From underneath the feathers a charged glow pervaded its way across the entire surface, before a lightning bolt suddenly fired up into the ceiling.

He looked around the room. What had happened? He saw the tunnel and issued an order. Four ninjas set off. They returned after less than a minute. Nobu nodded after listening to their report, his eyes still fixed on the glistening sarcophagus.

 

Matt came to, finding himself strapped to a support beam. He wriggled and twisted, testing his restraint. It was only one cable, tight and strong. Hearing something, he froze and listened carefully. Breathing, and quiet talking. Five other people. Three of them in the same situation as him, and two guards who had not yet noticed he was awake. He slumped to appear unconscious. Other guards were patrolling the halls around them.

“Frank” he whispered. No response.

“Anyone?”

“Mm. I’m here.” groaned Bucky.

“There’s two guards in here. More outside.” said Matt. He did note, however, that they were not paying attention to their prisoners. They were discussing something in urgent whispers.

“They want to go see whatever it is downstairs.” said Bucky.

Steve and Frank both showed signs of coming to. The guards stopped talking and came over to investigate. They checked all the restraints, gave a few prods and pokes, but after getting no response returned to their stations.

They all started struggling. Tied to beams at all four corners of the hole.

 

Karen’s plane landed, she alighted and headed inside. Punching in the entry code on the keypad, she entered the room. She saw what she was looking for, right where he had said where it would be. She snapped it onto her wrist, stood in front of a mirror and tested it. Yes, it worked. She was cloaked. 

Uncloaking, she left the room and caught the elevator to the lobby, exited the building and headed down the street. 

“Matt? Where are you?”

“Karen? What are you doing here? How did you get on comms?” He spoke quietly, trying not to attract attention. 

“Frank provided the hardware, and T’Challa downloaded a software upgrade. Where are you?” she repeated.

“No, you can’t be here, it’s not safe….what the hell are you doing?” he whispered urgently.

“Coming to get you.” She pulled two weapons from her thigh holsters and held them at shoulder level as she strode down the empty street. She checked the sight of each weapon and re-holstered them. Joining her from the left, Elektra. Joining her from the right, Sharon Carter. The three of them marched along together.

When they reached the building, a single ninja stood in the middle of the entrance, but did not react to their approach. Karen stopped right in front of ‘him’. ‘He’ morphed into Madame Gao. Gao handed Elektra a pair of sai , her signature weapon. For Sharon, a simple-looking pair of gloves. She put them on, flexed her hands, and smiled. Karen received first a dark green gun of a design she was not at all familiar with. Clearly alien. “Electrocution pellets. One knocks out, two kills.” Then another alien gun, dark orange. “Adhesive explosive pellets.” Karen slipped them into her belt-holsters.

“This way.” said Goa, holding the door open. Elektra first, then Sharon, then Karen, lastly Gao. As they progressed through the hallways Elektra took the lead in attacking the closest ninjas. Hand-springing towards her targets, taking them down with leg-locks and neck-snaps. Any that passed her were dealt with by Sharon. High kicks and arm-locks were her favorites. The new gloves were impervious to vibration, she could grab their punches and strike back using their own energy against them. Karen had the green gun. She fired through the fray, dropping them one after another as reinforcements arrived.

“Cute gun. Can I keep this?” Karen said to Madame Gao.

“I should say no, but, I think in your case I will make an exception.”

Elektra, stepping over prone bodies on the floor, approached Karen. “I’ll take you through.” The two of them set off together, joined by Sharon, who attended to those who tried to attack from the rear. Elektra led Karen to a walkway that crossed the hole. From there she could see all targets below, the cables binding the prisoners. And the ninjas, swarming all around. She swapped weapons, four quick shots and each cable snapped. Elektra stood up on the railing and dived for the floor below, rolling as she hit the deck and coming up fighting. Sharon approached from the other side, silently and swiftly attacking from behind. Daredevil, The Punisher, Steve and Bucky all joined in, while Karen fired from the walkway above. It was a ninja target gallery.

All the ninjas were down. As soon as Daredevil was satisfied there were no further threats, he went to the edge and looked up at Karen as she stood looking down at him from the walkway. He checked, correct heart. Not Madame Gao again. He bolted for the stairs that led up to the walkway, and she ran to meet him. 

The moment they had both been waiting for. He ripped off his mask and she flung herself into his embrace, and he held her like he was never letting go. Back in the warmth of each other’s arms. Safe. Together. But not totally alone. The others in the room at the bottom of the stairs. Meh. Who cares?

His mouth sought out hers, kissing her tenderly, but with rising urgency. Don’t forget to breathe. Oh, God, he wanted to draw her in, to be with her and part of her and inside her. She was giving him everything, he knew she could feel it too. If only the rest of the world would just go away.

They slowed their pace, each comforted by the other’s naked desire. Their bond adequately re-established, they could now return to civilization. As they released, she whispered in his ear “I’m waiting for you.” 

She took a step away, but he grabbed her hand and pulled her back into body contact range, and backed her up to the wall. He pressed himself into her and said “I’m ready for you.”

She drew in a deep breath. They had been apart for too long. “I’ve got a lot to tell you.”

“I know. Later.” 

She closed her eyes and shuddered as she felt a tingling all over. Different. Opening her eyes, she gasped. A lightning bolt shot up from the floor and into the ceiling, tendrils extending through the room. Leaving a trail of…something… in its wake.

“What was that?” he asked as he pulled back. “I can feel something, a…. I don’t know…”

“There’s, it’s like, like floating glitter in the air, its so… it’s beautiful!” She reached out to a glowing orb and tried to touch it but it drifted away, causing a wave that spread out through the whole room.

The light increased along with the sensation they were feeling. They clung together as they were transported to the sarcophagus room. Everything was coated in a white haze, and they were standing in front of it. Alone. It was open, and they stepped inside and lay down together. As they kissed the cover shut with a loud bang, and they were back in the room at the top of the stairs. Breathing heavily in each other’s arms.

“Uh… what was that?”

“I have no idea. But, it was nice.”

“Yeah.” he said with a smile. He felt happy. He felt as if happiness extended from him, out into the world.

They went downstairs and joined the others.

I should feel more excited about this, she thought. I’m meeting Captain America and the Winter Soldier.

But all I can feel is his heat. And mine.

 

 

“Someone’s missing. Where’s T’Challa?” said Frank, looking around. Steve, Sharon and Bucky all stood together, Matt and Karen were in the doorway, Elektra and Madame Gao across the room. “Wasn’t he with you?” he asked Madame Gao. 

“We escaped before he set off the … explosion. To destroy the sarcophagus.”

“I don’t think it was destroyed.” said Karen.

“She’s right. It’s still there.” added Matt.

“How do you know?” questioned Steve. 

Karen looked at Matt, who turned to face her.

“I can’t… we can’t really explain it, it’s just that we’ve kind of …seen it.”

Steve looked questioningly around the group. Gao and Elektra seemed to accept what Matt and Karen were saying, but Bucky and Frank looked confused too. What were they missing? He turned to Sharon. Madame Gao and Elektra had already explained to her their understanding of what was now happening with the sarcophagus. 

“They could be right, Steve. Madame Gao suspected it was not a device at all, but a dormant life-form. She didn’t give T’Challa an explosive, it was a … defibrillator. To wake it up.”

“It is still there.” said Black Panther, as he entered the room. They all turned to face him as he removed his mask. “and it is awake.”

 

Nobu was still standing in front of the sarcophagus. It was gently pulsating, its rhythm matching his own heartbeat. He was compelled to remain, he knew not why. But stay he must. His mind wandered as he gazed peacefully at its enchanting surface.

He had faithfully obeyed the Kree’s instructions to excavate the holes without requesting an explanation as to their purpose. But from what he had heard and what he had deduced, he had come up with his own conclusion. The previous portal to Earth, during the Battle for New York, had been vulnerable because it was so exposed. The holes were for underground portals, controllable and heavily guarded. All over the world. The Kree could send an invasion force to engulf the entire planet before the humans could respond.

Before…the humans…could respond.

The humans.

He was human. 

Different from most, but still human.

So… why was he siding with the Kree and not the humans?

How had it come to this?

This was not honoring his fallen family, this was a travesty upon his own species.

He must now do what he could to try to save those he had probably condemned to death. He bolted for the stairs, taking one last glance back at the source of his epiphany. He had to let them know. 

The Kree were coming.


End file.
